MethodHow List-It checks a business
Everything behind the AI-Ready score, the free AI check and the monthly report: what we read, what we ask the AI engines, how each point is earned, and what we do when we cannot check something. If anything here does not match what you see, email info@list-it.nz and we will correct whichever one is wrong.
What is the AI-Ready score?
The share of the available points a business has earned across three parts: its List-It listing, its maps and profiles (Google, Apple Maps, Bing and LinkedIn), and its own website. Every check carries fixed points, listed in the table on this page. The score is points earned divided by points available, times 100, rounded. It is the same number on the dashboard, in the monthly report and in the PDF.
How is a business without a website scored?
On its listing and its maps and profiles only, rescaled to 100. That number is called a presence score and is never shown under the words AI-Ready score, because the two have different denominators.
Why does the free AI check give a different number from the dashboard?
They measure different things on purpose. The free check gives an AI visibility score, and about a third of its points come from what the AI engines said at that moment: up to 20 for how many of the engines that answered recognised the business, and 14 for being named when we ask for a recommendation. The AI-Ready score in the dashboard and the monthly report measures only what the owner controls: the listing, the profiles and the website.
Why can two free checks minutes apart differ?
The listing, profile and website parts only move when something changes. The engine part is asked live every time, and the engines do not give the same answer twice, so the same business can move by several points between two runs. Each answer is one answer from one engine at one moment, not a ranking.
Are the AI results live or modelled?
Live. Every engine result shown is an answer that engine gave when we asked it, through the provider's own service with web search switched on: Perplexity, ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic) and Gemini (Google). An engine that does not answer, because of an outage or a usage limit, is shown as not checked and counted neither way. Nothing is estimated in its place.
What exactly do you ask the engines?
For recognition, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are each asked: "Is [business] a real, specific local business operating in New Zealand? Search the web." Perplexity is asked whether [business] is a real business in New Zealand. Each answers yes, no, or a real company that is an overseas brand, with one sentence of reasons. For a recommendation, Perplexity is asked for the best [trade] in [town], New Zealand, and we record whether the business is named and who else is. The trade is the term the owner confirmed in their dashboard, then their listed services, then their category.
What is the difference between recognised and recommended?
Recognised means an engine confirmed the business exists when asked about it by name. Recommended means it named the business when asked an open question a customer would ask, without being given the name. The second is much harder and is reported separately.
What are the weekly customer questions?
List-It Max owners get a set of up to ten questions a customer would type, written from their listing and editable by the owner. They are asked every week of ChatGPT and Perplexity, and of all four engines in the first week of each month. The dashboard shows each question, each engine's answer, whether the business was named, who else was named, and the date it was asked.
Do you cache results?
The free public check saves a result for the same typed name for up to 24 hours and says so, with the time it was taken. It is asked fresh as soon as the listing changes, or after 24 hours. Questions asked from the dashboard and the checks behind the monthly report are always asked fresh.
How does the free check find the right business?
It looks up the typed name against the trading name and the legal name on the New Zealand Business Number register, and against website addresses when a domain or a one-word name is typed. "&" and "and" are treated as the same. A town typed after the name limits the match to that town. If nothing matches, the check says so rather than reporting on a different business with a similar name.
What happens when you cannot check something?
It is shown as to do, with the reason, and never as a failure. Its points stay in the total available when the owner can complete it, because it is part of the job. A check that can never be completed for a business is left out entirely, so the maximum is always reachable.
How is a Google profile scored if you cannot find it?
We search Google Maps for the business name and town. If nothing matches, "Google Business Profile is live" scores 0 and says we could not find it. Its reviews, rating, hours and website link are shown as to do, not as failures, because we have not seen them. If the owner pastes their profile link into the listing, the profile check ticks. Google data is kept for up to 30 days and is never republished, only our verdict and a link.
What does the website check read?
The home page and up to 19 more pages found from the sitemap and the site's own links, each read up to 500 KB, plus robots.txt, the sitemap and a Google PageSpeed Insights mobile test. Tracking pixels, loading spinners, hidden images and images marked decorative the standard way are not counted as images. Title and description lengths are measured on the visible text. robots.txt is read to report whether search engines or AI crawlers are locked out.
What is in the monthly report?
The AI-Ready score and grade, every check with its points, what changed since the last report (from the second month), which AI engines recognised the business that day and which could not be reached, the recommendation question with who was named, and the fix list in priority order. It comes as an email and a PDF, and every report stays in the dashboard.
Where does the data come from, and where is it kept?
The New Zealand Business Number register; what the owner enters; the business's own website; Google's Places service; Google PageSpeed Insights; and the four AI engines. The database is hosted in Sydney, Australia. The AI checks run on each provider's own servers overseas.
How do I correct or remove a listing?
A verified owner edits their listing in the dashboard. Anyone associated with a business can ask for a detail to be corrected or for the listing to be reduced or removed by emailing info@list-it.nz from an address connected to the business. A business that has stopped trading is removed on request.
What does it cost?
Claiming and managing a listing is free, forever. List-It Max is $149 + GST a year after a 14-day free trial that needs no card. Keep Max before your trial ends and your price is locked at $149 + GST for life: it never goes up, even when our prices do. The renewal can be cancelled at any time from the dashboard.
What does List-It not claim?
That any score guarantees an AI engine will recommend a business, that a higher score means more customers, or that one engine's answer is a ranking. The score measures how readable and complete a business is to AI and search. What the engines say is reported as what they said, on the day, in their words.
Every check and its points
Scored by the same code that scores every owner, on our own listing, Bay Web Co, the business that builds List-It. Our score and our gaps are shown as they are. AI-Ready score today: 96, from a website check on 13 October 2026.
Your List-It listing: 15 of 15 points| Check | Our points | Available |
|---|
| Your logo is on your page | 2 | 2 |
| Your story is told | 3 | 3 |
| Photos show your work | 2 | 2 |
| Opening hours listed | 3 | 3 |
| Phone number listed | 3 | 3 |
| Website connected | 2 | 2 |
Maps and profiles: 22 of 25 points| Check | Our points | Available |
|---|
| Google Business Profile is live | 8 | 8 |
| You have Google reviews coming in | 2 | 5 |
| Your star rating is holding up | 3 | 3 |
| Your Google hours are filled in | 3 | 3 |
| Your Google profile links to your site | 2 | 2 |
| You are on Apple Maps | 2 | 2 |
| You are on Bing Places | 1 | 1 |
| You have a LinkedIn company page | 1 | 1 |
Your website: 53 of 54 points| Check | Our points | Available |
|---|
| AI crawlers are allowed in | 5 | 5 |
| Search engines are allowed in | 2 | 2 |
| AI can read your business details | 4 | 4 |
| Your NZBN is on your website | 1 | 1 |
| Your phone number matches everywhere | 3 | 3 |
| Your town is named on your homepage | 2 | 2 |
| Your internal links all work | 2 | 2 |
| Your services have their own pages | 2 | 2 |
| Reviews are on your own site | 2 | 3 |
| Every page has a proper title | 1 | 1 |
| You have a contact page | 2 | 2 |
| You answer common questions | 1 | 1 |
| Your site shows signs of life | 2 | 2 |
| AI agents get a map of your site | 1 | 1 |
| Every page has a description | 1 | 1 |
| Photos are described for AI | 1 | 1 |
| Images are optimised (WebP + sized) | 3 | 3 |
| Site loads fast on a phone | 8 | 8 |
| Readable by assistive tools | 4 | 4 |
| Works on phones | 1 | 1 |
| Site loads securely (the padlock) | 1 | 1 |
| Each page has one clear address | 1 | 1 |
| One clear headline per page | 1 | 1 |
| Looks good when shared | 1 | 1 |
| Your site links to your listing | 1 | 1 |
Some checks only apply to some businesses, for example the Google category check needs enough comparable businesses nearby. Where a check cannot apply it is left out, so totals differ slightly between businesses.
A real monthly report
Our own latest monthly report, exactly as an owner receives it: download the PDF.
Changes to the method
Related: how the NZ AI-Findability Index is measured, your listing and the NZBN data, pricing, the free AI check.